For a column I was working on, I made an 11th hour request – like Tuesday afternoon – to Vancouver 2010 Winter Games CEO John Furlong.

I asked John, who also ran his city’s bid committee, how Vancouver had viewed the significance of the International Olympic Committee evaluation commission’s visit.

John was gracious enough to use a break in meetings with the IOC 2010 Games Coordination Commission to answer my questions.

The column was done when I got the responses Tuesday evening, so I have posted them here because they add another dimension to the Tribune’s print and Internet coverage of the upcoming evaluation commission visit to Chicago.

The view – lightly edited -- from Vancouver’s Olympic boss:

Q. How did Vancouver approach the visit?

A. As if everything depended on the outcome. We wanted to establish our credibility with the commission as good planners to demonstrate that we had thoroughly researched the project, so that it was not expressed just as lines on paper but as a project that had been thoroughly well laid out, been completely researched, was well supported and was completely validated.

We also wanted to establish a connection with the commission, to have them view our team -- our people -- as folks they could trust and rely on, as people they could be good teammates with in the event that Vancouver were to be awarded the Games.

We spent months preparing and researching for the visit and believed the visit was a critical element in our pursuit to be awarded the 2010 Games.

Q. What role did what happened during the visit play in the eventual victory?

A. I think during the visit we established ourselves as a trusted team, as a cooperative team, as a team that had had the ability to change quickly, be adaptable -- and also that if we were confronted with problems we would tackle them vigorously and we would live up to the promise that the IOC would have had of us.

So I think it (the visit) played a key role and certainly as we went forward, I think the visit did quite a bit to enhance the reputation of the bid committee as potential organizers for the Games.

Comments

About the author

Philip Hersh grew up in Boston but has lived in Evanston since 1977. He has worked at the Tribune since 1984 and has focused on international sports and the Olympics since 1987. In 2011, the German sports publication, SportIntern, named Hersh among the most influential people in world sports, the 11th time he has earned that annual recognition. He was graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in French and a specialization in early 19th Century French literature. Prior to joining the Tribune, Hersh worked for the Gloucester, Mass., Daily Times, the Baltimore Evening Sun, the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times.